Carrier Division 25 under fire off Samar - Photo #2.

U.S. Navy Photograph

from the personal collection of Mike McKenna

"SECOND BATTLE OF THE PHILIPPINE SEA"

"BATTLE VEIL"

"Fighting furiously against enemy forces east of the San Bernardino Strait, U.S. Navy escort carriers and destroyers and destroyer escorts pit their planes and light guns against the heavy batteries of Japanese battleships and cruisers on October 25, 1944 (West Longitude Date).  Seeking to 'draw the curtain of confusion' on the Nipponese gunners, destroyers and destroyer-escorts lay a smoke screen across the black waters.  From this vaporous wall the tiny (in comparison to their opponents) DDs and DEs dashed out to loose torpedoes and hurl shells... at a cost of two destroyers and one destroyer escort sunk.  But the sacrifice was not in vain, even though an escort carrier was also included in the toll-- two of the Japanese heavy cruisers went down, and one destroyer was sunk, with another listed as 'probable.'"

Contemporaneous U.S. Navy caption

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Honor the Missing in Action and Killed in Action of Taffy III

We do remember.  We won't forget.